Volkswagen brand deliveries show disappointing level in September

The Volkswagen Group’s core passenger car brand had sales rising slightly – by 0.2% – in September, as the global deliveries were negatively impacted by slumping demand in Russia and the American continent.

Last month’s sales totaled 534,800 units and for the first nine months of the year the brand’s deliveries only climbed 3% to 4.56 million autos. The level from September followed an equally bland August month, when new car sales only rose 0.1%.

“The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand is benefiting above all from good developments in Western Europe and the continued positive trend in China, where we handed over more than two million models to customers in the first three quarters for the first time”, Christian Klingler, Board Member for Sales and Marketing for the Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, said in Wolfsburg on Tuesday. “This contrasts with the current uncertainties in Russia and the market downturn in South America; Volkswagen, too, was not entirely immune to these developments last month.”

Sales across the core European region went up 5% in the January-September period, with a total of 1.26 million cars overall; 648,300 units on the Western markets without Germany – which accounted for another 430,100 vehicles.

In China, the maker’s largest single market, sales for the nine months topped the 2 million threshold for the first time, reaching 2.07 million cars after an year-over-year climb of 15%. The Americas on the other hand saw continued slumping demand, with North America falling 8% and the US a further 14% to 270,900 autos. Meanwhile, a traditionally strong region for VW, South America sees reversing fortunes for the Germans, with deliveries sliding 19.3 % to 488,000 cars.